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Socio-economic System (socio-economic + system)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

The Global Financial Crisis and Migrant Workers in China: ,There is No Future as a Labourer; Returning to the Village has No Meaning'

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010
KAM WING CHAN
Abstract This essay examines the impact of the global financial crisis on rural migrant labour in China, with a focus on unemployment. It illustrates the interaction of global and China-specific processes in the context of the worldwide recession. The essay first summarizes China's unique socio-economic system and the mechanisms that have created a system of ,rural migrant labour' and ,super-cheapened' it to help make China the ,world's factory'. The main part of the essay examines the unemployment situation for migrants in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, and the dislocations and problems migrant labourers are facing. The China story is complex but interesting, not only for its rather complicated lexicon and statistics that often confuse outside observers, but also for its distinctive system of exploiting the rural population and internal migrant labour. This system makes the impact of the global crisis on migrant labourers, which are at the bottom of the global supply chain, all the more apparent. The last part of this essay analyses recent governmental fiscal-stimulus policies and measures as well as their impact on rural migrant labour, making some broader observations and linking the crisis to China's model of development. Résumé Ce texte examine l'impact de la crise financière mondiale sur la main-d',uvre migrante rurale chinoise en s'intéressant notamment au chômage. Il illustre l'interaction des processus planétaires et nationaux dans le cadre de la récession mondiale. Une synthèse présente d'abord le régime socio-économique unique du pays, ainsi que les mécanismes qui ont créé un système de ,main-d',uvre migrante rurale' tout en ,hyper-dépréciant' ces travailleurs afin de faire de la Chine ,l'usine du monde'. L'étude centrale porte sur le chômage des migrants entre la fin 2008 et le premier semestre 2009, ainsi que sur les bouleversements et problèmes que rencontrent les ouvriers migrants. L'histoire chinoise est complexe mais intéressante, non seulement à cause d'un vocabulaire et de statistiques compliqués qui déroutent souvent les observateurs extérieurs, mais aussi par son système spécifique d'exploitation de la population rurale et de la main-d',uvre migrante. Ce système renforce d'autant plus l'impact de la crise mondiale sur les ouvriers migrants, lesquels se trouvent tout en bas de la chaîne d'approvisionnement mondial. En revenant sur les récentes politiques et mesures d'incitation fiscale du gouvernement et sur leurs conséquences pour la main-d',uvre migrante rurale, la dernière partie élargit le champ des observations et relie la crise au modèle de développement chinois. [source]

The Role of Immigrants in the Italian Labour Market

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2001
Murizio Ambrosini
In little more than a decade, Italy has become a country characterized by immigration from abroad. This pattern is far removed from what central-northern European countries experienced during the 1950s and the 1960s. Immigration has not been explicitly demanded by employers, nor has it been ruled by agreements with the immigrants' countries of origin, nor perceived as necessary for the economic system. For all these reasons, immigration has been chaotic and managed in an emergency and approximate way, even though it is deemed useful and is requested by the "informal" as well as the "official" economy. Following presentations of statistics on trends in the phenomenon, three issues are analysed: - how immigrants are integrated into a labour market that has not called them and into circumstances characterized by the absence of public policies to help them in their job search. - whether it is possible to separate regular immigration involved in the "official" market from irregular immigration in the hidden economy, considering advantages of the first and harmful effects of the second for the Italian socio-economic system. - whether it is appropriate to address complementarity between immigrant labour and the national labour force in a country with 2,500,000 unemployed workers and heavy territorial unbalances. [source]

Class in the Classroom: Engaging Hidden Identities

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2001
Peter W. Wakefield
Using Marcuse's theory of the total mobilization of advanced technology society along the lines of what he calls "the performance principle," I attempt to describe the complex composition of class oppression in the classroom. Students conceive of themselves as economic units, customers pursuing neutral interests in a morally neutral, socio-economic system of capitalist competition. The classic, unreflective conception of the classroom responds to this by implicitly endorsing individualism and ideals of humanist citizenship. While racism and cultural diversity have come to count as elements of liberal intelligence in most college curricula, attempts to theorize these aspects of social and individual identity and place them in a broader content of class appear radical and inconsistent with the humanistic notion that we all have control over who we are and what we achieve. But tags such as "radical" and "unrealistic" mark a society based on the performance principle. Marcuse allows us to recognize a single author behind elements of psychology, metaphysics, and capitalism. The fact that bell hooks hits upon a similar notion suggests that we might use Marcuse's theory of the truly liberatory potential of imagination to transform and reconceive our classrooms so that the insidious effects of class, racism, and individualistic apathy might be subverted. Specifically, I outline and place into this theoretical context three concrete pedagogical practices: (a) the use of the physical space of the classroom; (b) the performance of community through group readings and short full-class ceremonies, and (c) the symbolic modeling represented by interdisciplinary approaches to teaching. All three of these practices engage students in ways that co-curricularly subvert class (and, incidentally, race divisions) and allow students to imagine, and so engage in, political action for justice as they see it. [source]

Changing economies of scale , synergies between implementation of an ecological tax reform and development of industrial ecosystems

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 6 2001
Christoph Bey
In this paper an investigation is presented into the long-term effects of an ecological tax reform. Exploring time frames of different length, the paper considers the reform's effects on manufacturing systems, especially on economies of scale. Industrial ecology, a framework for restructuring into industrial ecosystems, is one attempt at transforming the socio-economic system for sustainability. The paper points out the synergetic effects an ecological tax reform has with those restructuring efforts for sustainable industry and society. For that purpose, the economies of scale in the current linear production system and those found in the closed-loop circular structures of industrial ecosystems are compared, and the paper is concluded by a discussion of opportunity costs of implementation of an ecological tax reform and industrial ecological restructuring. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source]